The Minister of Economy and Labor, Besar Durmishi, held a press conference today to inform about the activities that the Ministry of Economy and Labor will undertake regarding the increase in prices of essential food products.
Below, we share the full speech of Minister Durmishi:
The Ministry of Economy and Labor, and I as Minister, stated from the very beginning of my mandate that one of the main goals I will work on is improving the living standard of the citizens.
We demonstrated this commitment early in the autumn by introducing measures to cap margins, initially on school supplies and later on certain essential food products.
As I stated, and as statistical data confirmed, these measures managed to reduce household expenses by up to MKD3.000 during their implementation.
We pledged to continue in this direction with measures aimed at improving citizens' quality of life.
Ten days ago, together with the Chambers of Commerce, traders, distributors, and producers, we announced the New Year's Basket initiative.
The goal of this initiative was to encourage corporate social responsibility during the New Year holidays, reducing living costs for citizens through voluntary price reductions on some of the most purchased holiday products.
During our meetings, we reached an agreement with producers, traders, and distributors to ensure there would not be drastic price increases for the products included in the initiative before its launch, nor for other products that were not on the list.
The New Year's Basket initiative successfully began, as seen in the initial days, with price reductions on some products in the basket exceeding 10%. Additionally, the number of products offered by companies in the basket has been increasing daily.
However, this was not the case for other essential food products, where prices have increased significantly.
The Government and I, as Minister of Economy and Labor, will not tolerate traders raising prices on certain products at the expense of reducing others included in the New Year's Basket.
Following the Government's session yesterday, we immediately held a meeting with the Director of the State Market Inspectorate.
As directed, inspectors from the State Market Inspectorate started intensified controls in stores this morning, analyzing price trends of basic food products over the past three months to determine how much the prices of products outside the New Year's Basket have increased.
I appeal to all stakeholders in this process—producers, distributors, and traders—to demonstrate the social responsibility they spoke about when they proposed the New Year's Basket initiative.
I urge them to adjust the prices of essential products for this holiday period and support citizens during this time.
I will not allow nor tolerate tricks that deceive citizens during the holidays.
It is unacceptable for the opportunities provided for certain products to be offset by dramatic price increases in others, such as oil, bread, milk, dairy products, sugar, salt, eggs, and similar items.
I call on major retail chains to reconsider their actions; otherwise, I will use all available mechanisms to make decisions aimed at protecting the citizens' standard of living.
The State Market Inspectorate is conducting extraordinary inspections, and the decisions we make will depend on the data received. Whether traders adjust their prices and the New Year's Basket initiative continues, or whether we are forced to impose price or margin freezes, will largely depend on them.
We aimed to show goodwill and jointly contribute to reducing holiday expenses for citizens, but this has not been the case.
Citizens observe what is happening with prices; they are the ultimate inspectors of this initiative. If traders continue with such behavior, as announced, stricter measures will be implemented, such as freezing margins or prices.